The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-18


thrust your rod of inquisitiveness into the
deathful saccharine Of perdition.
Stimulating liquids also come into the same
category of temptations delicious but deathful
You say: 81 cannot bear the taste of ntoxi-
eating liquor, and how any man can like it is
to me an amazemeut." Well, then, it is no
credit to you that you do not take it. Do not
brag about your total abstinence, because it is
not from any principle that you reject alco-
holism, but for the same reason that
you reject certain styles of food-you simply
don't like the taste of them. But multitudes
of people have natural fondness for all kinds
of intoxicants. They like it so much that it
makes them smack their lips to look at it,
They are dyspeptic, and they take it to aid
digestion, or they are annoyed by insomnia,
and they take it to produce sleep, or they are
troubled, and they take it to make them obliv-
Gus, or they feel good, and they must celebrate
their hilarity. They begin with mint iulep,
sucked through two straws on the Long
Branch piazza, and end in the ditch
kerosene and half whisky. They
not only like it, but it is an all-consuming
passion of body, mind and soul, and after
awhile have 1t they will, though one wine
glass OF 1T should cost the temporal and eternal
destruction OF themselves, and all their fami-
lies, and the whole human race. They would
say: 81 am sorry it is going to cost me, ana
my family, and all the worlds population so
very much, but here it goes TO my lips, and
now let it roll over my parched tongue and
down my heated throat, the sweetest, the most
inspiring, the most rapturous thing
that ever thrilled mortal or immortal
To cure the habit before it comes to
its last stages, various plans were tried in olden
times. This plan was recommended In the
books: When a man wanted to reform he put
shot or bullets into the cup or glass of strong
drink-one additional shot or bullet each day,
that displaced so much liquor. Bullet after
bullet added day by day, of course the liquor
became less and less until the bullets would
entirely ill up the glass and there was no room
for the liquid, and by that time it was said the
inebriate would be cured. Whether any one
ever was cured in that way know not, but by
long experiment 1t is found that the only way
is to stop short off, and when man does that
he needs God to lrelp him. And there have
been more cases than you can count when God
has so helped the man that he quit forever,
and | could count y score of them here TODAY
some of them pillars in the house Of God.
One would suppose that men would take
warning from some Of the OminouS name given
to the lntoxlcants, and stand off from the de-
vastating Influence. You have noticed for in
stance that some Of the restaurants are called
''The Shades" typical of the fact that it puts
a mans reputation in the shade. and his NOR
ais in the shade, and his prosperity in the
shade, and his wife and children in the shade
and his immortal destiny in the shade.
Now, / find on some of the liquor
signs i'll all our cities the words cold Crow"
nightly suggestive of "a carcass, and the
filthy raven that swoops upon it, cold Crow!'
rum, but buried. and this evil is picking at
their glazed eyes, and pecking at their bloat-
ed cheek, and peclIing at their destroyed man
hood and womanhood, TRUSTING beak and
claw into the mortal remains of what was once
gleriCusly alive but now morally dead. cold
Crow'' But alas, how many take
no warning. They make me think of
Cesar on his way to assassination fearing
ing; though his statue in the hall crashed into
fragments at his feet and scroll containing
O to into
hands. yet walking right on to meet the dag
ger that was to take his life. This infatpaton
OF strong drink is so mighty in MANY man
that though his fortunes are crashing. and his
health is crashing, and his domestic interests
are crashing, and we hand him a long scroll
containing the names of perils that await him,
he goes straight on to physical, and mental,
and moral assassination. In proportion as any
style of alcoholism is pleasant to your TASTE
and stimulating to your nerves, and for time
delightful to all your physical and mental con-
stitution, is the peril awful? Remember
Jonathan and the forbidden honey in the
woods of Bethaven.
Furthermore, the gamesters indulgence
must be put in the list of temptations delicious
but destructive. l have crossed the ocean
eight times, and always one of the best rooms
has, from morning till late at might, been given
up to gambling practices. [ heard of many
men who went on board with enough money
for European excursion who landed without
enough money to get their baggage up to the
uOlel OF railroad station. 10 many there IS q
complete fascination i'll games OF hazard or the
risking of money on possibilities. 1t seems as
natural for them to bet as to eat. Indeed the
hunger for food is often oyerpowered with the
hunger for waSers, as in the case of Lord Sand
witch, persistent gambler, who not being will
ing to leave the dice table long enough for the
taking of food, invented preparation of food
that he could take without stopping the game
namely, Il slice OF beef between two slices of
bread, which was named after Lord Sandwich,
&c al nj nc hn hoN folN
the fascination of the wager to speak Slight
ingly of the temptation. 1t has slain a multi
tude of intellectual and moral giants, men and
women stronger than you or /. Down under
its power went glorious Oliver Goldsmith and
Gibbon, the historian, and Charles Fox, the
statesman, and in olden times famous sena-
tors of the United States, who used to be as
regularly at the gambling house all night as
they were in the halls of legislation by day.
Oh, the tragedies of the faro tablet l know
persons who began with slight stake
in a ladies' parlor, and ended with the
suicides pistol at Monte Carlo. They played
with the square pieces of bone with
black marks on them, not knowing that Satan
was playing for their bones at the same time,
and was sure to sweep all the stakes off on his
side of the table. The last New York legisa-
ture sanctioned the mighty evil last spring by
passing a law for its defense at the race tracks,
and many young men in these cities lost all
their wages at Coney Island this summer, and
this fall are borrowing from the money tills of
their employers, or arranging by means of false
entry to adjust their demoralized finances.
Every man who voted for the Ives pool bill has
ON his hands and forehead the blood of these
souls.
But In this connection some young converts
say to me: rs it right to play cards? Is there
any harm in game of Whist or euchre?"
Well know good men who play whist and
euchre, and other styles Of game without any
wagers had a friend who played cards with
his wife and children, and then at tile close,
said: "COme, now, let us have prayers" will
not judge other mems consciences, but tell
you that cards are in my mind SO associated
with the temporal and eternal damnation of
splendid young men, that l should no sooner
say to my family: Come, let us have n game
of cards." than L would so into a
menagerie and say; Conc, let Us have
a game of rattlesnalles," or into a
cemetery, and sitting down by
marble Slab, say to the grave diggers: Come,
let us have game of skulls Conscientious
young ladies are silently saying TO me while
speak: do you think card playing will do
us any harm?" Perhaps not but how will
you feel if in the great day of eternity, when
we are asked to give on account of our influ-
ence, some man shall say to YOU Il was in
troduced to games Of chance in the year 1887,
in Brooklyn, ut your house, and I went on
from that sport to something more exciting,
!